A Nocturne: Night Of The Vampire

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All Rise...

A boring movie calms Judge Gordon Sullivan's passions to tears.

The Charge

"A sophisticated reworking of the vampire genre with film noir
stylistics."

The Case

In college I took a creative writing course (I even wrote a short
screenplay!), so I know how difficult it can be to come up with plots and
characters, let alone ones that are engaging and believable. However, that's
really just the ante at the filmmaking table; having friends who are willing to
get naked and slathered in blood is going to make up for a lack of either
characters or plot. A Nocturne: Night of the Vampire tries to substitute
moody shots, a metal soundtrack, and lame attempts at "philosophizing"
for character development and plot. Although released by the venerable Troma
label, there's little of the usual goofy gore and nudity the studio is known
for, and the presentation of this disc won't do much to help their reputation in
the technical departments.

Ostensibly, A Nocturne: Night of the Vampire is the story of X
(Vanessa de Largie) and Z (Alex Spears), vampires who disdain the mere mortals
who surround them in inner-city Melbourne. The pair wander the city, in search
of victims, but they too are stalked by others. Of course, even this makes it
sound like there's more of a plot than there really is. Most of the film's
interminable 70 minutes is taken up with long shots of the characters doing
nothing or spouting poor dialogue. There's a victim or two along the way, and
even some blood and breasts, but that doesn't really add up to a
"plot."

I'll give A Nocturne one thing: it sounds like a good idea on paper.
The film opens with a quote from famed philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche that
basically says that only the "evil" people can help advance humanity
because society calms too many of our passions. Thus, for this film, vampires
are the next stage for humanity, urging the merely mortal to greater heights.
However, rather than a simple biological supremacy, vampires stand in for a
freer, more advanced philosophical and moral being. A speech by one of X's and
Z's pals later in the film reveals that although X and Z might think themselves
above humanity because of their passion and "evil," they are instead a
product of what they feed on. This opens up the philosophical question about how
good relates to evil and the inferior to the superior, both of which are
fascinating questions. I can applaud A Nocturne for trying to take on
those grand themes in the otherwise debased genre of the vampire film, if for no
other reason than the superficial connection between Nietzsche's conception of
the Superman and the figure of the vampire.

The only problem is, it doesn't work. Philosophy and film can certainly work
together, but those pesky questions of character and plot have to be dealt with
first. We don't learn enough about our would-be Supermen throughout the film to
make us care about them, and the plot, such as it is, isn't engaging enough to
make the philosophical questions worth pondering. I appreciate mood and
atmosphere, but by 7 minutes into the film (one tenth the running time), not a
single line of significant dialogue nor any real plot had revealed itself.
Instead, we're treated to lots of long, slow shots of characters we don't know
or care about being vampires or going about their day. Maybe there's an artistic
point to marrying grand themes to daily minutia, but I must have missed it.

Troma is not generally known for producing top-notch DVDs, and this disc is
no exception (although it's far from their worst effort). A Nocturne
looks like it was shot on consumer equipment, so the video source was never
going to look that great. Detail is pretty weak, black levels are more like grey
levels, and the image is somewhat noisy due to the dim environments. It's
certainly watchable, but it's not going to strain anyone's system. The audio is
similarly presented in a no-frills stereo track. Dialogue is usually pretty well
balanced, but there's obvious distortion created by less than stellar on-set
recording. Again, it's totally listenable, but nothing special. The main extra
for the film is a collection of 20 minutes of deleted scenes. They might contain
more dialogue than the other 70 minutes of the feature film, but they're hardly
revelatory. The disc also includes the film's trailer. There's a batch of the
usual Tromatic extras, including trailers, PSAs, credits, etc.

I can't really think of anything to recommend A Nocturne: Night of the
Vampire except maybe for the desperate and/or brave. Prescription medication
may help the viewing experience, but barring that, this film should probably be
avoided.

The Verdict

A Nocturne: Night of the Vampire is guilty of sucking the life out of
viewers.